The Qilian Mountains was selected as a typical study area.Comparative analyses of the hydrological,meteorological and landscape data were done for 20 rivers on the north slopes of the Qilian Mountains in order to study the influence of landscape on river runoff.The following conclusions were drawn: the main landscape elements,which impact the amount of runoff in the Qilian Mountains,are forest,grassland and glaciers.Forest has an effect of "reducing runoff",while the grass and glaciers have an effect of "increasing runoff",and with increase of the coverage of forest and grassland,the effect of "reducing runoff" and effect of "increasing runoff" were slowing down.It is found that when the coverage of grassland,forest and glacier increases by 1%,respectively,the river will change the regulating volume of 2.3 mm,-0.27 mm and 0.06 mm,respectively.The order of runoff regulation capacity of the landscape elements in unit area is: forestgrasslandglaciers.One can see that the runoff regulation capacity of the forest is 3.45 times more than that of grassland in average.